Russia’s commercial aviation safety record improves in 2012

Russia’s commercial aviation safety record improved in 2012, according to Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsia. In its annual report, Rosaviatsia said there were six fatal accidents last year, down from 10 in 2011.

In 2012, 58 people were killed in crashes, down from 119 in 2011. The number of non-fatal accidents decreased from eight in 2011 to seven last year.

According to IATA, there was one hull loss for every 5 million flights of Western-built jet aircraft in 2012, the lowest accident rate for a single year ever. The accidents in Russia were on both Western- and Russian-built aircraft.

In April, a UTair ATR 72 aircraft crashed shortly after taking off in Siberia, killing 31 of the 43 people onboard. In September, an Antonov An-28, operated by Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Enterprise, crashed on approach to a small town on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, killing 10 people. At the end of the year, a Red Wings Airlines Tupolev Tu-204 overshot a runway at a Moscow Airport and crashed into a road, killing four people.